owded at
an early hour; and as my services were required in the discussion, I
postponed the communication of my resolve, until the division should
announce that my labours were at an end. But the hour passed away in
routine business. Still, the premier did not appear. The anxiety grew
excessive. At length whispers ran round the benches, of a rencounter
between the two distinguished individuals; and, like all rumours of this
nature, the results were pronounced to be of the most alarming kind. The
consternation was gradually mitigated by the announcement that one of the
combatants remained unhurt, but that the other had received a mortal
wound. The House was speedily deserted; and all rushed out to ascertain
the truth of this melancholy intelligence. Yet, nothing was to be gathered
among the numberless reports of the night, and I returned home harassed
almost into fever. The morning quieted the general alarm. The wound was
dangerous, but not mortal; and both combatants had sent in their
resignation. It was accepted by royalty, and before another night fell; I
was sent for by the premier, and offered one of the vacant offices.

Such are the chances of public life. The lottery had been drawn, and mine
was a prize. With what feelings I returned on that night to my fireside;
with what welcome I was received by my gentle, yet heroic, wife; or with
what eyes I glanced upon my infants, as they came to ask the paternal kiss
and blessing before they parted for their pillows, I leave to those who
know the rejoicing of the heart, to conceive.

Those events had shaken the ministry, as dissensions always have done; and
it still cost us many a severe struggle to resist the force of Opposition
combined with the clamours of the country. England and France now
presented a spectacle unexampled in the annals of hostilities, engaged in
a war which seemed interminable--both determined to conquer or perish;
both impelled by the most daring courage; yet neither able to inflict the
slightest blow upon the other, with but fifteen miles between. France was
nearer to Russia, nay, was nearer to the remotest extremity of Asia, than
to England. In the midst of the fiercest war, both preserved the attitude
of the most profound peace. The lion and the tiger, couching on the
opposite sides of some impassable ravine, each watching the fiery eyes and
naked fangs of the other, would have been the natural emblems of this
hopeless thirst of encounter between